Twenty years after its creation, Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor today finally released “Broken ,” the 20-minute, highly graphic short film directed by late Throbbing Gristle member Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson. Reznor posted the movie to NIN’s Vimeo channel today, warning that it contains “extreme violent and sexual content.”
He warns:
**WARNING: CONTAINS EXTREME VIOLENT AND SEXUAL CONTENT**
This 1993 short film, directed by Peter Christopherson, collects the videos from the NIN Broken EP and ties them together as a “snuff” film. It was never officially released due to its graphic content, but was leaked in the 90s, and became a widely-traded VHS bootleg. A high quality burnable DVD version has since leaked onto torrent sites.
According to the Wikipedia entry about the bootlegged version, the film “weaves Broken’s four music videos together via a violent “snuff film” framing sequence, concluding with an otherwise unreleased video for the EP’s final song ‘Gave Up,’ setting the conclusion of the film’s frame story to the song.”
Rob Sheridan, who currently works with Reznor in NIN and How To Destroy Angels, offers a great perspective on the film’s shady past, and why it captures a time that has now very much passed:
“If you’re young, and seeing this for the first time, remember that this is not for you. It’s a product of a bygone era. It was never meant for searchable, on-demand access, never meant for the soft-hearted masses who put no effort into seeking it out. It’s here now because it should be preserved – but really, if you didn’t find this on VHS decades ago, or seek it out on file-sharing networks more recently, you don’t deserve it.”
Watch the full film below, but proceed at your own risk.
UPDATE: As Nine Inch Nails posts on its Tumblr, Vimeo has removed the film:
VIDEO REMOVED BY VIMEO. This just wasn’t meant for the masses. There is, however, a certain broad inlet of the sea where the land curves inward, inhabited by people who attack and rob ships at sea, where this video can be downloaded in high quality.
UPDATE #2: New version posted. For now.
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seen it own it
“Sorry, this video does not exist”
Don’t watch it. I’m glad it’s taken down and back to the underground. I hope it shocked the hell out of some screen/phone addicted teen zombies of today.
I remember when it first made the rounds years ago, friends of mine who were huge NIN fans were disgusted by it. I’m not sure things like this really need to see the light of day, honestly.
The Broken film was when Nine Inch Nails jumped the shark. It’s ugly and stupid, wasting label cash that might have otherwise given COIL a proper record deal on Nothing. It revealed that Reznor had run out of ideas to steal from the industrial band scene, and was now reduced to using only shock value to sell records.
Rob Zombie, eat your heart out.